" In light of Ignatius' 'Two Standards' and 'The Mystries Done From The Garden To The House Of Annas', at any moment we can be Judas or Peter, a Christian life can be a fine line."

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Fr. C.C. Martindale, S.J. On The Anti-Christ

Have either John or Paul prophesied the Advent of a definite individual
Antichrist at the end of time? No.“End of the World,” and the events surrounding it,
must necessarily occur as historical events, it seems equally necessary
that they must express themselves in something concrete, either a man,
or a group, or a political or systematic unit of some sort; but the Old
Testament, Saint Paul, and Saint John use their image of a definite one
person precisely when their gaze is fixed rather on their own time,
which is, in a sense, the least “real,” most transitory, plane of all
those that they contemplate. Babylon, Tyre, Antiochus, Rome – and all
the persecutors of all history for ever, are but the crude material
examples of a much deeper and abiding truth, just as the Two Witnesses
stand as symbol of that residue of the Faithful who never cease their
promulgation of God’s truth even in the worst of persecution, and,
“though they be dead, yet shall they live,” as Our Lord promised; and
just as we ought not to try to tie them down to definite personalities,
like Moses and Elias, Elias and Enoch, Peter and Paul, so neither should
we seek to assign a definite individual as the captain of the enemy
host that forever bears hard upon them.
There is certainly nothing to prevent
our surmising that the enemies of God may be led or represented by an
individual, at the end of human history just as at any other time;
indeed, since the

1 comment:

Qualis Rex
said...

Revelation has for me become one of the most tedious books of the bible; not because of its substance, but because of the tendency for certain fundie sects to use it for their own heretical ends. What does it all mean? No one knows, not even the author of the bible, the church (including all conciliar churches here). Yet all too often it would appear that the heretic is 100% sure about what each allegory signifies...and very conveniently supports their own world/political view. I have my own interpretations, but that's just all they are (i.e. that and a dime won't even buy me a cup of coffee). I guess, in sum, Revelation is to fundies what Marian "prophecy" is to Fatimanatics.

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.